Clothespin Activity

by Jason M. Wallin, Oak Harbor, Washington, USA.

This activity is to encourage the use of the intrinsic muscles of the hand (the small muscles in the fingers) or the arches of the hand (the muscles that bend the fingers towards the palm or towards the thumb). If you are working on the finger muscles, encourage the child to use his thumb, index finger, and ring finger pinch the clothespins open, lift them off of the container, drop them inside the bucket, and then take them out again and place around the rim of the container. If you are working on the arches (you will need fairly large clothespins) have the child squeeze the clothespins open with his his fingers and the base of this thumb (like he was using a spray bottle) to perform the same task.

Other Activities

Matching: Clothespins could be spray painted different colors and corresponding colored dots could be marked around the edge off the container. Ask the child to match the colored clothespin with a corresponding dot. Similar activities could be created, wherein the child could match numbers, letters, words, and so on. This would also be a good activity for associating uppercase and lowercase letters, with the uppercase set printed on the clothespins and the lowercase set printed on the container. (Thanks to Donna Wise for this latter suggestion.)

Counting: Have the child count the clothespins as he takes them off.

Numbers: Numbers could be written on the clothespins and the child could sequence them around the edge of the container. Similar activities could be done with special number sequences, like a house number, phone number, locker combination, etc. Or, symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, or division could be written on clothespins as well, and the child could create “number sentences” across the edge.

Spelling: Write different letters of the alphabet on a number of clothespins and have the child spell words out words as he attaches the clothespins to the container.

Sorting: Using two (or more) containers and attaching pictures of objects, animals, people, and so on to the clothespins you can have the child sort by a variety of classes, functions, etc. (Thanks to Donna Wise for this suggestion.) I like to do number and letter sorting with kids who are just learning their alphabet and numerals, and this concept would work nicely here, too.

Construction

Any type of container can work for this activity. In the picture, obviously, a Cool Whip container was used, but a shoe box, hat box, empty cottage cheese tub, or old Tupperware would work just as well. A five gallon bucket is great for kids who like loud noises; dropping even clothespins from a distance into one of those can be pretty reinforcing. Regular wooden clothespins are fine for working on the finger muscles, but the big plastic clothespins shown are fun and are great for working those arches (I imagine you can get a variety of clothespins from OT magazines).

You can learn more about Jason M. Wallin and his ideas for children with Autism at his web site. http://www.polyxo.com

– Jason M. Wallin